Hi, Scout!
We are indeed considering expanding the Piano Salon this year. The idea is to make it available for "traveling shows" to use in the mornings.
We already have Gaminwench with her Singing For ScaridyCats on Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Would be fun to host other groups on the other mornings. This could be anything -- seminar, yoga, band practice, class, performance... anything not X-rated. (Simple nudity entirely welcome.)

I'm thinking that Friday morning could be body painting for the Critical Tits Ride. Please speak up if you would like to do this! There will be vinyl and rugs on the ground to catch spilled paint.

Yikes! Over three weeks since my last report!
All preparations are going well -- except fundraising, which is far behind. (The political climate?) I'm just awful busy, which is why I'm not on ePlaya much.

We are up around 42 campers! Our camp-member Dragon Pilot just recruited a couple he met at SHIFT in Oregon -- a great fit for our camp, he says. They have been wanting to do BM for some time, and we had a spare set of tickets available.
And... they are comfortable in the buff. That means we have quite a few Naked Bicycle Technicians this year, so we better live up to our name. We may be allbikes in the buff next year!

And we may put up a big sign this year already: Naked Burners Go To The Front Of The Line.

Also, our old friend Pizzamancer has joined the camp, with at least one additional professional chef. We will be eating well this year, for sure!

We keep fine-tuning the camp layout. And it looks like the Lounge will indeed be larger, and Body Painting will be right next to it, so the two may blend a little bit -- the border between the two will be flexible. And I'm buying paint by the gallons -- literally!

And Do-It-Yourself bicycle repair will be back on the G street side (as in 2015) where it is easy to access.

We are looking for a ride for a camper, from Davis, California, and return. Reckon I will post details on the Rides Wanted board. Come to think of it... she might also drive her own car, with one or two to help pay for the fuel. She does have a VP, but is leery of Dustifying her nice car. Cannot say I blame her -- it's a very-well-kept late-model Honda Element that she recently inherited.

The new bus is coming along. Installing water and waste tanks now.

We remain open to new ideas for services we might offer. We will always focus on bicycle repair, but Healing Arts is clearly a hit.

Alas, the founder of our Healing Arts program, MaryAnimal, will miss this year.

But another famous ePlayan will be there again; Unjonharley! A few weeks ago, he took a nasty spill on a patently-dangerous three-wheeled widow-maker of a pedal-contraption, while participating in a Kinetic Skulpture Race. Off to the ER he went, first in a Police car and then an ambulance, with a major bruise on his chest. Not to worry.... Only a bruise, and he walked out of there a couple hours later.

DRIVER NEEDED from Northern California to BRC.
Albatross, our second bus, finally has a quick coat of white paint, so she no longer resembles a school bus (quite so much). And she is registered as a private RV.
(She is a 1994 Blue Bird with Diesel engine and air brakes).
Now I need someone to drive her from Clearlake, Northern California, to the Playa! Our own likely candidates will be in Oregon for the solar eclipse on the 21st, and that's the day I hope to arrive on Playa.

You would be following me in Millicent (my other bus).

No special driver license needed, since she is an RV. And she has an automatic transmission. But she is 38 feet long, and otherwise Large. So it would be best if the driver has experience with a large RV.

You would come to Clearlake next week -- August 8 - 13 -- so we can meet and practice driving her and make any other arrangements.

Please contact me via PM for details. I will be out of town and offline this Thursday August 3 thru Monday August 7.

All righty, then....
Time to get serious.
Apparently, half the Western United States And Canada -- including some of our Campers -- will descend on Oregon for the eclipse on the 21st, and that leaves me with nobody to drive Albatross from Clearlake to BRC on that date.

Clearlake is about 90 miles north of the S. F. Bay Area, and similarly from Sacramento.

So.... Albatross is a 1994 Blue Bird school bus that is now registered as a Motor Home. That means she requires no special Driver License. She is 37 feet long, and s-l-o-w. But she does have an automatic transmission.
The idea is to follow me (in Millicent -- the bus you all know and love) from Clearlake to BRC.

Ideally, we leave late Sunday the 20th and sleep on top of Donner Summit (or in Reno), and arrive in BRC early Monday the 21st. The possibility exists that I will not be ready in time and the trip would happen a day or two later.

For anyone who buys a cheap one-speed (or hub geared) new bicycle:
Before riding a single inch, rotate the crank forward several times and feel for tightness.

You can pick the rear wheel off the ground, or roll the bike forward, but you must "pedal" forward with your hand a number of turns.

If you notice any tightness, stop cranking, and touch the chain with a finger or two. The chain may be as tight as a guitar string. If it is, STOP RIGHT THERE.
Loosen the axle nut with a 15 millimeter wrench or socket, or adjustable wrench, before cranking any more.

You may get away with simply re-tightening the nut. But you may also need to loosen the other nut and set the wheel straight and set the chain adjustment properly.

Reason: The sprockets are egg-shaped. That's what $69.95 buys. So the chain loosens and tightens by itself as you ride. Of course, the kid who assembles the bike at the store has no idea.

We see broken chains on such bikes from the first day on Playa. It wrecks the ball bearings too.

one of the bikes repaired was my wife's. Your guys were uber nice, quick and competent. Thank you all for making our international burn easier =)

Loved the piano set up.

Hugzzzz

“Be authentic to your dreams. Be authentic to your own idea about yourself. Grind away at your own minds and bodies until you become your own invention. Be Mad Scientists.”
― Warren Ellis, Doktor Sleepless,
-findme at berzins*at*gmail------

I'll have more of this story later, but I was reliant on your DIY area this year for not one but two botttom bracket overhauls. (One of which I performed in the dark on Friday night!)

I used a total of three bottom bracket bearings, which I will gift in the future. Thank you for having these! I also ended up getting a weld done over at wonder, only to have to add chain links and re adjust the drop on the back wheel due to the new shape of the bike back at your area.

I learned more about bike repair than ever before thanks to the tools and soft encouragement of your staff.

Many thanks to unjohn and your group. Next time I will gift bottom bracket overhauls at our camp or volunteer for you guys.

I'm willing to bet that the number one *real repair this year (excluding tire/tubes and or chain issues) was crank bearings... I had to replace and fix mine twice this year, and there were many, many bikes out there sounding as crunchy as mine did. The bearing cages were coming apart and/ or opening up and letting the ball bearings run free. The first one came out in little, sharp, worn down pieces, and the adjustment locking washer had no alignment tab left on it!

Jackass wrote:I'm willing to bet that the number one *real repair this year (excluding tire/tubes and or chain issues) was crank bearings... I had to replace and fix mine twice this year, and there were many, many bikes out there sounding as crunchy as mine did. The bearing cages were coming apart and/ or opening up and letting the ball bearings run free. The first one came out in little, sharp, worn down pieces, and the adjustment locking washer had no alignment tab left on it!

Hey me too! My cage got ripped apart after a couple days and came out mangled. I was fortunate enough to have a friend who helped me set the loose bearings in the crank's bearing holder (for lack of a better term), by embedding it in some bearing grease that another friend had brought, and tightening it down over it. After that it was smooth riding.

I think I'll probably grab a few of those as spare parts just in case.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

We dropped by your camp with a potato chip front wheel. I knew there was some trick to getting them relatively straight, but forgot what it was. No one at the front of house knew the trick, so we waited for full service repair (pointless to get on it with tools as we didn't know the trick). Once the bike was called up, someone back of house knew the trick (drop the wheel on the ground a certain way) and we were out of there in 5 minutes

Also known as a "taco'ed" wheel. Yes, whacking the wheel against the ground can sometimes restore the normal shape. But the wheel is now far more prone to tacoing again and should be replaced or rebuilt as soon as possible.

The camp has a nice peaceful barbershop feel to it. There is a bit of purposeful hum in the background with people fixing bikes, occasional piano music, good shade, kinship with others who have managed to destroy their bikes. Exchange stories with a truly random sampling of the city, as the only common ground is having a dead bike.

I'm still unpacking, and will get back to the question of Crankbroke bearings eventually.
We have discussed it within the camp also, of course, and there is debate over whether the balls can be reliably run without the cage -- as BBadger reports success with. Somehow, I have never tried it. Of course, I do it routinely with various other ball bearings. Fundamentally, the cage is not needed in a ball bearing, but is only an assembly aid. Reality might vary even by production batches -- if some other cheap-o Chinese bike parts are anything to go by.
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In other news....

The camp was awash in cigarette butts this year. A certain camper has confessed, and the matter is "under consideration".
But as a policy for 2018... we are now a Non Smoking camp.
No discussion, no debate, no democracy. My name on the door. No smoking outside of private dwellings.

Similar with cell phones. No cell phones in the camp's public areas -- which includes my own dwelling.
I will provide a charging station -- numerous 110 VAC outlets -- in a small tent centrally located in the residential area.
And an anvil and a sledge in the shop.